KATHMANDU, March 5: Parliamentary Hearing Committee (PHC) has endorsed the names of four nominees for heads of constitutional commissions, on Tuesday.

A meeting of the PHC held at Singhadurbar approved the names of Bala Nanda Poudel for National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission (NNRFC), Shanta Raj Subedi for National Inclusion Commission and Dr Bijaya Kumar Dutta for Madhesi Commission, Bishnu Prasad Tharu. No complaints were filed against the aforementioned proposed four commissioners, according to the committee.

Ansari's hearing underway

On January 20, the Constitutional Council had recommended the five commissioners including Samim Miya Ansari for Muslim Commission.

Meanwhile, Ansari's hearing is currently underway at the committee meeting. The committee is undecided over the nomination of Ansari as he is accused of holding forged Nepali citizenship. Earlier, the committee had launched a probe into the citizenship certificate, academic documents and political affiliation of Muslim Commission Chairperson-nominee Ansari.

After receiving complaints of forged citizenship and academic certificates against Ansari, the PHC wrote to the District Administration Office, Constitutional Council and Election Commission for details of his documents.

The committee sought the details of citizenship certificate issuance from DAO, academic documents of intermediate and SLC level from the CC and central committee member's list of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) from the EC. According to the complaints, Ansari had acquired his citizenship certificate from Kathmandu DAO on January 6, 1999 at the age of 25. Claiming that Ansari was born in India, the complainant has mentioned that a copy of his citizenship certificate doesn't mention the name of the person issuing the certificate. NCP lawmaker Yogesh Bhattarai demanded that the PHC write to the DAO for details after hearing from the complainant at the committee on Tuesday.

Likewise, it has been claimed that Ansari doesn't have certificates of intermediate and SLC but has certificate of bachelor degree from Patna of India. But, according to the complaints, Ansari received the equivalence of his bachelor's degree on November 16, 2018 from Tribhuvan University, 14 years after completing his "bachelor level education". Questioning the delay in receiving the equivalence and not mentioning educational institution on his bio-data, the lawmakers demanded to probe his credentials.

The complainant has mentioned that Ansari's name has been mentioned as the 374th member of the ruling NCP central committee. He was affiliated with Rastriya Janata Party Nepal prior to the general election in 2017.

 
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